1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an oven, and, more particularly, to an oven that is capable of preventing heat transfer from one cooking space having relatively high temperature to another cooking space having relatively low temperature along opposite side plates of a cooking chamber. The cooking chamber includes a plurality of vertically partitioned cooking spaces by the provision of insulating units and cooling units, which are mounted at the opposite side plates of the cooking chamber.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventional ovens are classified into different types, such as a microwave oven to cook food using microwaves, an electric oven to cook food using an electric heater, and a gas oven to cook food using gas heat. Each oven includes a plurality of partitions vertically mounted in a cooking chamber, which is partitioned into a plurality of cooking spaces by the partitions, whereby several kinds of food are simultaneously cooked.
An example of conventional ovens each having a plurality of cooking spaces vertically partitioned by a plurality of partitions is disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. S63-172837.
The conventional oven includes a plurality of supporting rails vertically mounted at opposite side plates of a cooking chamber thereof, and a plurality of partitions are connected to the corresponding supporting rails to partition the cooking chamber into a plurality of cooking spaces such that several kinds of food can be simultaneously cooked or the volumes of the cooking spaces can be changed based on the size and kind of the food.
In the conventional oven with the above-stated construction, however, heat transfer is carried out along the opposite side plates of the cooking chamber. As a result, heat is transferred from one cooking space where food is cooked to another cooking space where food is not cooked along the opposite side plates of the cooking chamber. When food is cooked in all the cooking spaces, heat is transferred from one cooking space having relatively high temperature to another cooking chamber having relatively low temperature along the opposite side plates of the cooking chamber.
As the heat transfer is carried out between the cooking spaces along the opposite side plates of the cooking chamber as described above, heat loss is generated, and therefore, energy consumption is increased. Furthermore, the temperature of the cooking space where the food is not cooked is increased due to heat transferred from the cooking space where the food is cooked along the opposite side plates of the cooking chamber. Further, the door of the oven is maintained at high temperature thereby making it unsafe for a user to touch the door after cooking is completed.